Bakary

Bakary is a farmer in Bougoula Village. He is 47 years old and married with 10 children. He is a 1st year farmer with myAgro and plants maize. Bakary would like to take a loan for a semoir, which is a local seeding machine that has 2 boxes: one for seed and one for fertilizer. The semoir is attached to a cow that will pull the semoir along the field, and there are diggers and a pipe behind each box that will place the correct amount of seed and fertilizer the right distance apart. This enables farmers to plant using the micro-dosing method of planting – using a small amount of fertilizer per plant instead of the traditional method of broadcasting fertilizer. This is less expensive since it uses less fertilizer and is much better for land sustainability as well. myAgro hopes that by providing the semoir on loan, Bakary will be able to increase the amount of land he plants using the micro-dosing method and significantly increase his farm income.

Bakary would like a semoir because, compared to manual planting, the semoir is much quicker and can help increase his harvest size. Before, Bakary planted manually which was time-consuming and made it difficult to grow enough food to meet the needs of his family. Bakary goals are to have a good harvest and for his family to be happy. Bakary says myAgro helps him reach his goals by continuing to enable farmers to pay little by little for the fertilizer and seed packages. Bakary will also be able to rent his semoir to others to earn extra income. All semoirs are covered by a 2-year guarantee that covers most repairs within a 1-week time period.

Additional Information

More information about this loan

This loan theme is for myAgro's loans to smallholder farmers, who need credit to purchase precision planters, an agricultural tool. This loan will thus be used to provide borrowers with needed goods or services, as opposed to cash or financial credit. Precision planters are plough-like devices pulled by an animal, and they are used to evenly and efficiently plant seeds and disburse fertilizer.

About myAgro

myAgro is a startup nonprofit organization in West Africa that enables farmers to purchase high-quality agricultural inputs - certified seeds and fertilizer - on layaway through an SMS-based platform and a network of local vendors. Additionally, the organization helps farmers to increase their crop yields by using more effective seeding machines. Kiva lenders’ funds are used to help these farmers afford more labor-reducing and cost-effective seeding machines through loans with low interest rates so that they can increase their yields and improve their quality of life.